LimeWire Music Blog

It’s been quite a year for LimeWire Store. While we feverishly listened to new tunes, interviewed breaking bands and reviewed the hottest albums and shows, we also presented heaps of exclusive musical morsels including several fantastic Live at Lime sessions (Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, Matt & Kim, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Gary Jules, Kristin Hersh, and The Bouncing Souls) and kick-ass Ear to the Ground free samplers (Los Angeles, Portland, Boston, Tokyo, Nashville, Brooklyn, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Athens, GA) showcasing some of the best indie talent in the country. With 2010 knocking on our door, it’s time to take stock of our playlists and look back on the year in music. Here’s wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!

Tom Monday

1. Cass McCombs – Catacombs
2. David Rawlings Machine – A Friend of a Friend
3. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
4. Those Darlins – Those Darlins
5. The Mary Onettes – Islands
6. Wooden Birds – Magnolia
7. Deer Tick – Born on Flag Day
8. Zoe Muth & the Lost High Rollers – Zoe Muth
9. The Black Hollies – Softly Towards the Light
10. Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

Kelly Smith

1. Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream
2. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
3. The xx – xx
4. Passion Pit – Manners
5. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
6. The Juan MacLean – The Future Will Come
7. The Phenomenal Handclap Band – s/t
8. Girls – Album
9. Amanda Blank – I Love You
10. Real Estate – s/t

EJ Wolborsky

10. Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms
9. The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love
8. The Spits – Vol. IV
7. Harlem Shakes – Technicolor Health
6. Micachu and the Shapes – Jewellery
5. The Twilight Sad – Forget the Night Ahead
4. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – s/t
3. Dan Deacon – Bromst
2. Dirty Projectors -Bitte Orca
1. Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue

Honorable Mentions: Real Estate, s/t; Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; Visqueen, Message to Garcia

Anyone (and by that, I mean EVERYONE) who included Pitchfork-approved hackery like Grizzly Bear (might as well have been packaged as Pet Sounds‘ 40th Anniversary re-release), Animal Collective (ELO, but without all the fun parts — i.e., the self-aware overindulgence and catchy melodies), Japandroids (No Age redux), Bat For Lashes (bastard child of Kate Bush and Davendra Banhart), or Miike Snow (Niice vowels!) in his/her year-end list doesn’t know dick about music, and you can quote me on that. Here’s to a better 2010!

Charlie Hellman

1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Passion Pit – Manners
3. DJ Benzi & Plain Pat – Sky High
4. Bon Iver – Blood Bank
5. Discovery – LP
6. Various Artists – Dark Was the Night
7. The xx - xx
8. Here We Go Magic – s/t
9. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
10. The Dodos – Time To Die

Ian Whalen

1. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
2. Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country
3. The Antlers – Hospice
4. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
5. A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Ashes Grammar
6. Washed Out – Life of Leisure EP
7. Black Meteoric Star – s/t
8. Various Artists – 5: Five Years of Hyperdub
9. Deastro – Moondagger
10. Harlem Shakes -Technicolor Health

Jon Levine

10. Those Darlins – Those Darlins
I first discovered the Darlins when they opened for Ida Maria at Mercury Lounge last year, and I remember wondering at the time whether they could capture the special quality they have and convey it on a record. They did. The self-titled album they recorded in Brooklyn evokes all the things I love about Nashville and none of the overproduced, modern pop sound and flashy blond hair that’s tarnished country music for so long.

9. Raekwon the Chef – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. II
The Wu-Tang Clan done as it should be.

8. The Dead Weather – Horehound
One of these days Jack White will produce something that sucks, but for now he proves that he doesn’t even have to front the band to make a bad-ass record. I don’t know what cut like a buffalo means, but I like it.

7. BOAT – Setting the Paces
Mmmmm…indie rock…

6. Teenage Cool Kids – Foreign Lands
Referring to Foreign Lands as “lo-fi” would be an understatement. This album sounds like it was recorded in someone’s mom’s basement in Texas, and it probably was. über-catchy indie rock à la Dinosaur Jr.

5. Doves – Kingdom of Rust
Always loved Doves, and they hit it again with this one.

4. Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg
After touring internationally to support their massive first album, Wolfmother essentially broke up, leaving front man Andrew Stockdale to carry the flaming torch of rock on his own. Just when I was starting to fear that the musical landscape was to be left to the likes of Fleet Foxes and Dirty Projectors for all eternity, Wolfmother 2.0 dropped Cosmic Egg all over our collective faces. While possibly not as replete with Guitar Hero-ready singles as their first release, Cosmic Egg feels like it was crafted by a more mature hand…plus it’s even more Black Sabbathy.

3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
A lot of bands try to tweak their sound from album to album and it often leaves you wanting just to give up and pop in that freshman effort you enjoyed so much (think Is This It vs. First Impressions of Earth). Luckily Yeah Yeah Yeahs manage to do it right every time. If I had been able to listen to Fever to Tell and It’s Blitz! together way back in 2003 I’m not sure I would’ve gotten it, but Blitz is a great record and it leaves you feeling eager for the future rather than nostalgic for the past.

2. Kid Cudi – Man on the Moon: The End of Day
Kid Cudi proves definitively that you can still be creative in the realm of hip-hop without using an AutoTune effect on every vocal.

1. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below
Fronted by now-defunct Ima Robot singer Alex Ebert, Up From Below plays like his own personal revival to which you get a front-row seat. I’m just hoping he can keep this project going long enough for it to reach maturity.

Zach Silverman’s Top 1 List

1. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm

Nathan Lovejoy

(in no particular order)
1. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
2. Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine
3. The Antlers – Hospice
4. The Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
5. Bill Callahan – Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
6. Deastro – Moondagger
7. J. Tillman – Vacilando Territory Blues
8. Phosphorescent – To Willie
9. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Beware
10. Califone – All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

Abe Velez

1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
2. Passion Pit – Manners
3. Polvo – In Prism
4. Natalia LaFourcade – HU HU HU
5. Empire of the Sun – Walking On A Dream
6. Via Tania – Moon Sweet Moon
7. Danny Barnes – Pizza Box
8. Various Artists – Ben Folds Presents: University a Cappella!
9. Orchestre National de Jazz – Around Robert Wyatt
10. The Sway Machinery – Hidden Melodies Revealed

Jason Herskowitz

1. Morrissey – Years of Refusal
2. The Gaslight Anthem – The ‘59 Sound
3. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing
4. Ben Harper and Relentless7 – White Lies For Dark Times
5. Bon Iver – Blood Bank
6. Silversun Pickups – Swoon
7. The Antlers – Hospice
8. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
9. Florence and The Machine – A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood
10. Metric – Fantasies

Darren Ressler

1. Lamb of God – Wrath
2. The Juan Maclean – The Future Will Come
3. Mastodon – Crack the Skye
4. The Phenomenal Handclap Band – s/t
5. Empire of the Sun – Walking On A Dream
6. Passion Pit – Manners
7. Children – Hard Times Hanging at the End of the World
8. Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy
9. Chromeo – DJ Kicks
10. Sub Focus – s/t
11. Pelican – What We All Come to Need
12. Fever Ray – Fever Ray
13. Dälek – Gutter Tactics
14. Moby – Wait For Me
15. Alix Perez – 1984

Honorable Mentions
1. The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die
2. Dan Deacon – Bromst
3. Depeche Mode – Songs of the Universe
4. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us
5. Gui Boratto – Take My Breath Away
6. Kraftwerk – The Catalogue
7. Bike For Three – More Heart Than Brains

Top Singles
1. Groove Armada – “I Won’t Kneel”
2. Felix Da Housecat – “We All Wanna Be Prince”
3. Deadmau5 – “I Remember” (J Majik & Wickaman remix)
4. The Juan Maclean – “Happy House”
5. Speech Debelle – “Searching”
6. Fever Ray – “When I Grow Up”
7. Phoenix – “1901” + “Listzomania”
8. Slayer – “Psychopathy Red”
9. Kid Cudi – “Day and Nite”
10. Noisettes – “Never Forget You”

Overhyped Albums I Chose To Ignore
1. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

Guilty Pop Pleasures
1. Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
2. Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”
3. Rihanna – “Hard”

Worst Songs of the 2000s
1. Lady Gaga – “Just Dance”
2. Nickelback – “How You Remind Me”
3. Baha Men – “Who Let the Dogs Out”
4. Sisqo – “Thong Song”
5. Ricky Martin – “She Bangs”
6. Disturbed – “Down With the Sickness”
7. James Blunt – “You’re Beautiful”
8. Anything by Coldplay